Belgium sends reconnaissance team to Nigeria to assist families of abducted girls

Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders and Public Health Minister Laurette Onkelinx Sunday announced that they have decided to send a small reconnaissance team of experts of the departments of Foreign Affairs and Public Health to Nigeria, after the kidnapping of 223 Nigerian schoolgirls. "This team has full backing of the Nigerian government. The mission will last for 3 to 4 days and will determine if an eventual deployment of a medical and psychological team is useful. The team would provide assistance to the families of the schoolgirls and the schoolgirls themselves as soon as they are released," said the two ministers in a joint statement. Based on the findings of the reconnaissance team, Belgium will decide whether to send its own team or propose or support a European initiative, it added.